IM: helping service providers boost uptime

The expanding network of service providers and enterprises is putting pressure on them to look for infrastructure management software to reduce downtime. Abhinav Singh and Atanu Kumar Das say that this market will grow by 20 percent in 2005

Infrastructure Management (IM) is finding takers among telcos, ISPs, large enterprises and even medium-sized enterprises. Enterprises and service providers are witnessing increased use of IT within their set-ups.

IDC estimates that the Indian IM market grew by 20 percent in 2004, up from $13 million in 2003. A similar growth is projected for 2005. Ajith Sankaran, Assistant Manager, Software and Services Research, IDC (India) says, “Organisations in the banking vertical have mature IT set-ups and they keep expanding their network. Then there are enterprises in the oil and retail verticals that have high-end IT networks and need to manage them efficiently. The large-scale expansion of business units and branches that have to be networked is the primary driver for the Indian IM market.” Moreover, with increased IT adoption and the growing use of collaborative applications, it has become vital to network branches, channels and suppliers. Telecom and BFSI are the early adopters of this technology.

V Subramanyam, the Country Manager of Middleware Sales, Software Group, IBM India, comments, “The availability and performance of IT infrastructure is the foundation of business growth. Enterprises are looking for tools to monitor the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure to keep end-users satisfied.” Enterprises and service providers need an integrated network management tool to monitor the network, servers, OSs, applications, databases and middleware. States Praveen Sengar, Analyst, Software and Services Research, IDC (India), “We are yet to see full-fledged IM solutions in the enterprise market. Generally they are satisfied with the network management point solutions that come bundled along with hardware from different vendors. Managed service providers, especially telecom service providers, have a very complex converged IT infrastructure—which is their bread and butter. As this infrastructure needs to be maintained and managed, this segment will continue to use IM in a big way.”

The RBI factor

The Indian BFSI segment is looking to implement BASEL II compliance, core banking and RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement). They want to be ready to comply with regulations when the RBI issues them as it is expected to. Recent times have seen fast growth in telecom infra-structure, value-added service roll-outs, and capacity to serve new customers, all of which are increasing the need for OSS (Operations Support Systems)-based infrastructure management solutions. Says Bithin Talukdar, Market Development & Alliance Manager, Software Business, HP India, “One of the important trends in the IM market is the huge interest among organisations to adopt the IT service management philosophy. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), which is considered to be the best practice in IT service management, BS 15000 certified environments and the ITSM (IT Service Management) approach are becoming de facto standards across verticals running mission-critical IT services within their organisations.”

These standards are prompting organisations to streamline their IT set-ups which in turn will drive them towards IM.

ITIL, BS 15000 certified environments and the ITSM approach are becoming de facto standards across verticals for organisations that are running mission-critical IT services Bithin Talukdar Market Development Manager Software Business HP India	Pricing was a major barrier for companies in adopting IM, but the scenario has changed Akash Saraf Joint Managing Director Zenith Software	SMBs look for a plug-and-play system with simple command lines and graphic user interfaces Ranajoy Punja Vice-president, Marketing Cisco India & SAARC	OpenView has helped us meet our objective of making the working process seamless K G Mohan Vice-President, IT Hindustan Lever

SMBs and IM

Many IM vendors in India have a scaled-down version of their enterprise IM product for mid-sized companies. Some are bullish about the potential market for IM solutions among SMBs. Talukdar says, “Through market research we found that there is a huge potential market among medium businesses. 60 percent of them have a LAN in place and of these about 33 percent have WANs. This represents a large market for IM software. The network management needs of small businesses are not very mature.”

Many IM vendors such as Computer Associates (CA) India have come out with a special bundle of IM for SMBs. CA India’s is priced at Rs 2.99 lakh, and it expects 20 new installations by the end of 2005. As per the company, the typical SMB requirement for IM will be for network management, including intrusion detection systems, network usage and bandwidth management—hence there is no need to offer the complete IM pack. Vishaka Industries, Kribhco, Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank and Bharat Co-operative Bank are some of CA’s customers for this product.

Other vendors believe that as SMBs have a simple IT network, their requirements are not very complex. Explains Ranajoy Punja, Vice-president, Marketing, Cisco India & SAARC, “SMBs generally look for a simple plug-and-play system with simple command lines and graphic user interfaces. An IM solution for SMBs should be easy to configure and deploy as they do not have a team of sophisticated IT professionals.”

Smarter IM tools

IM solutions are getting smarter as they need to manage complex networks and make the whole process simple. These solutions have the ability to correlate events in the network to reduce complexities, identify and isolate faults, and proactively notify an organisation’s IT staff when performance degrades. Most IM solutions can take automated action, and are agile while conducting root-cause analysis. Punja says, “Some of our products have in-built intelligence. For instance,* in the security sphere, the in-built tool has the capability to identify any security breach in the network and manage it from the perspective of security policy.” As far as wireless is concerned, intelligence is built into access points. Wireless is treated as an extension of the wireline network by an IM solution that can identify any breach in the wireless network and transmit an alert if required.

With Indian enterprises and managed service providers expanding their networks and looking for superior network management capabilities, IM vendors can expect sales to continue growing steadily over the next few years. As more sophisticated tools make their debut, the IM market in India will grow—both in sophistication and revenues.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com

atanu@expresscomputeronline.com